Journal sweatyboatman's Journal: Ads and Subscription
I was thinking about my comment here and wondering about punishing the people you're selling to, your audience, in the context of T(H)GSB.
About comments. The first thing I read, usually before I read the article, are the comments. They ground the article, point out flaws or highlights of the story. And generally, the community here is wide enough that there are plenty of opinions.
I have access to MSNBC, NYTimes, CNN, Space.Com, etc. I get the Times delivered in the morning and read through it. On most subjects (excluding, for example, Case Mods or Anime) I am already covered. I come to Slashdot not for the links to sites I've already perused, but for the thoughtful and thought provoking comments of the users.
So, the Comment system is not just vital to my Slashdot experience. It is my Slashdot experience.
Now, about Subscription services. It appears that the Subscription service is already in place at Slashdot. I have a little link on my personal page that says "Subscribe" and when I click on it there's a PayPal button. And then there's the ads (which are probably the least intrusive -- and yet still visible -- ads I have ever seen). Still, the level of posting is unaffected and Slashdot still offers the same level of service and the same excellent community. Just with ads now.
The hubub appears to be over nothing. And even now it hasn't settled down. Why? Probably because Slashdot made its users, mostly the die-hards who love Slashdot like a brother, feel like criminals. They feel betrayed, even though nothing seems to have changed. Betrayed how? By suggesting they should pay for Slashdot.
And this is my thesis. On the net there's a collusion between the concepts of punishment and payment. Mainly because of the "service that was once free is now no longer free" effect.
The second factor I think is the DMCA and the bill formerly known as the SSSCA. The term piracy has spilt out over everything free on the internet. Getting things free, reading things for free, saying things for free has been stained; it's pirate. Even if the author's intent is to have them be free.
Telling someone that they should pay for something, telling them that it's valuable, worth money echoes in our minds. It makes the thing seem dirty and that makes us feel used. We feel like we were trapped, lulled, or bamboozled into this newfound "criminality". When we did nothing wrong, in fact, we did what's natural, what the web seems designed to do, shared information.
Slashdot is stained with that same thing. The fear that Slash will become Napster, will convert from something that was open to something that suddenly is closed... That's what's driving the frenzy. It may be irrational, it may be startlingly close to the truth, it doesn't matter.
What is the solution? What should Slashdot do? Slashdot is already doing the right thing, has struck a fine balance between making money and being open. Hopefully that will continue. But the internet community, the world community needs to reject the label of pirate/theft. We need to promote the concept that information wants to be free. That the sharing of ideas, even copyrighted or company-core ideas, enriches everyone.
Read the post I linked to above. The point I was trying to make is that no matter how many laws are passed, data will be shared, media will be copied and distributed through this seive that is the internet. But rather than lock down the internet and turn it into a prison, IP holders need to embrace information flow, accept it, not as a loss, but as a natural occurence. Not just thinking of it as free advertising or mind-share, but actually accepting it as we do friction or rainfall or any other thing that affect business.
Blah blah blah.
Sweat
